ALT I LI LEMUR 111 



GENUS *ALTILILEMUR. FAT-TAILED LEMURS. 



- 2—2 -, 1—1 r, S— 3 ., 3—3 ,^ 



Tail conical, thickened at base ; rostrum exceedingly broad for its 

 length, with long narrow nasals, rounded on tip ; braincase long, wide 

 posteriorly, with considerable intertemporal constriction; zygomatic 

 arches wide ; orbits large ; palate very broad posteriorly ; molars rather 

 large with three cusps, two outer and one inner ; first and second pre- 

 molar canine-like in both jaws; the first lower premolar much larger 

 than the others ; the third shortest with one low interior cusp. 



The species included here in this genus have been usually placed in 

 Opolemur Gray, which had for its type and only species Cheirogaleus 

 ( !) MAJOR E. Geoff roy. There was, indeed, at the time Gray instituted 

 his genus another described species, C. crossleyi Grandidier, which 

 should have been included, but it was evidently unknown to Gray, as 

 he makes no mention of it, and for him Opolemur ( !) was a mono- 

 typical genus. Unfortunately for the scientific standing of Gray's 

 genus, E. Geoffroy had proposed in 1812 for his milii, previously 

 named major, the genus Cheirogaleus (!) and this fact was per- 

 fectly well known to Gray, who gives Cheirogaleus ( !) milii Geoff., 

 as one of the species in his Catalogue of Monkeys, Lemurs, etc., p. 77. 

 In establishing the genus Opolemur ( !), Gray, as was frequently cus- 

 tomary with him, ignored the writings of previous authors, and here 

 adopted for his type a species already the type of another described 

 genus. This procedure deprives Opolemur (!) of all scientific stand- 

 ing, and reduces the term to a pure synonym of Cheirogaleus ( !) 

 Geoff., and its farther employment as a generic name is prohibited. 

 This leaves the two species C. samati = A. medius, and C. thomasi 

 without a genus, and I propose therefore for them the generic term 

 Altililemur, with A. medius (E. Geoff.), as its type. 



Only two species of Altililemur are known ; the type just named, 

 and thomasi Major, both heretofore placed in Opolemur ( !), although 

 that term was applied to species possessing different generic characters 

 from those exhibited by the forms now placed under the newly created 

 name. 



*Altilis. Fatted or Fattening, alluding to the often enlarged base of tail. 



